March 14, 2013
The target was made by the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, during an Information Communication Technology forum in Lagos.
The minister, who noted that the current state of broadband penetration in Nigeria is estimated at between six per and 10 per cent, stressed that attaining the benefits derived from broadband connectivity will require not only industry collaboration but significant investment in time and in money.
She said with low broadband penetration rates and high cost of access to broadband, the government has realised that significant work still remains to be done and significant investments are still required to be made.
According to her, “The industry landscape has changed since the early days of liberalisation– the competitive landscape has changed, the technology continues to evolve, consumers are getting more demanding for bandwidth and industry priorities for infrastructure are now more focused on broadband employment, raising new challenges for our network operators and infrastructure providers.”
She said this has made the government to continue to be alive to its responsibilities in developing the appropriate policy, legal and regulatory framework to attract the necessary domestic and foreign direct investment to fuel the data/internet revolution that the country needs.
Johnson said President Goodluck Jonathan had taken a holistic approach at driving broadband with the inauguration of a Presidential Committee on September 20, 2012 with the mandate to produce a broadband strategy and roadmap.
She said: “The end result of deliberations over the last five months is a roadmap with clear time bound phases that will deliver our policy objective of a 500 per cent increase in broadband penetration by 2015
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